The Desert Song (1943 film)

The Desert Song
The Desert Song
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Florey
Screenplay by	Robert Buckner
Based on	The Desert Song; 1926 play; by Oscar Hammerstein II; Otto A. Harbach; Oscar Hammerstein II; Frank Mandel
Produced by	Robert Buckner
Starring	Dennis Morgan; Irene Manning; Bruce Cabot
Cinematography	Bert Glennon
Edited by	Frank Magee
Music by	Leo F. Forbstein
Color process	Technicolor
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date	December 17, 1943;
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,148,000
Box office	$4,595,000

The Desert Song is a 1943 American musical film. It was directed by Robert Florey and starred Dennis Morgan, Irene Manning and Bruce Cabot.^[2] It is based on the 1926 operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Charles Novi, Jack McConaghy).

This film version of the operetta was, like the 1929 film version, almost never seen after its original release due to content and copyright issues, which made the film hard to find or view. In 2014, it was remastered, restored and released on DVD by Warner Brothers.^[3]

The film is more sophisticated technically than the earlier film due to its large budget and advances in both sound and color. This is the first film version to be made in full three-strip Technicolor. It tries to make the operetta topical in terms of World War II, by having the outlaw hero with a dual identity fight the Nazis as well as the Riffs. As in the 1953 film, the hero's name is changed to El Khobar, rather than the Red Shadow.

The 1943 Desert Song is perhaps the only instance in which a stage operetta of the 1920s has been updated to reflect topical concerns of the 1940s. In fact, the United States Office of War Information held up release of the film for a year because of the shifting political positions of Vichy France. It did well at the box office nonetheless, and was Warner Brothers' highest grossing film of the year.^[4]

Plot

Cast

Dennis Morgan as Paul Hudson/El Khobar
Irene Manning as Margot
Bruce Cabot as Col. Fontaine
Lynne Overman as Johnny Walsh
Gene Lockhart as Pere FanFan
Faye Emerson as Hajy
Victor Francen as Caid Yousseff
Curt Bois as François
Jack La Rue as Lt. Bertin
Marcel Dalio as Tarbouch
Cee Pee Johnson as Drummer in Moroccan cafe sequence (uncredited)^[5]^[6]

Box office

The film was Warner Bros.' most popular of the year, earning $2,561,000 domestically and $2,034,000 foreign.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 24 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
^ Crowther, Bosley (December 18, 1943). "NY Times: The Desert Song". NY Times. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
^ "The Desert Song (1944) -". www.Shop.WarnerArchive.com. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
^ You Must Remember This: the Warner Brothers story, Richard Schickel and George Perry, pg. 161
^ "Torrid Tom-Toms Set". Hollywood Reporter. July 31, 1942. Page 8. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
^ "Famed 'Cee Pee' Johnson Coming with His Band for October Shows". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. September 22, 1947. Page 7. Retrieved February 28, 2021.